We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jose Hernandez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jose below.
Alright, Jose thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
At 14 my mother brought me a classical guitar from Mexico and that was that. I feel in love with playing music and taught myself over the years. I really wished I was more involved with writing my own music from the very beginning. I started out in the Hardcore Punk scene as a vocalist and side man but it wasn’t until I was 27 that I really took to songwriting. I wholeheartedly believe learning the craft of songwriting is key and essential to fully expressing yourself as a music artist.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Of course!
My name is Jose Hernandez Im the front man and main songwriter for J + the Bishops. I first started in the music industry when I was 14 preforming gigs with likeminded friends. I started out in the hardcore punk scene and then branched out creatively around 27 and founded J + the Bishops in 2019.
I think what sets me apart from others is my ability to cross genres through production and performance. Im able to grab from all types of music and make It my own.
Im most proud of the fact that we have gained over 20k monthly listeners on Spotify over a year and have had over 500k streams in 2024.
The main thing Ive always wanted to communicate to anyone through my brand/music is that I really enjoy creating art and building a world around a sound that I connect with and am able to share with all types of listeners.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I started J + the Bishops in 2019 but unfortunately in 2020 we disbanded due to the covid shutdown and creative differences. I put myself on a break from music for most of that year but I could not for the life of me move on from creating. There was still a drive to write and produce music. I continued writing as a solo artist with not much traction for 3yrs, I had just about given up on the prospect of creating because not much had changed since 2020 for me.
J+the Bishops Spotify artist page was still up and in Feb. of 2024 I was notified that one of my songs had made it to a popular TikTok music page and was shared to over a million listeners. I say that all to say that even when I felt like no one was listening I continued to believe in myself and what I was creating. I think that was an eye opening experience for me. So continue creating, you never know who is watching.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
I think the best thing anyone who appreciates art of any kind can do is to support your favorite artist any way you can. Whether that is buying merchandise or paying a door fee, following their music page or socials media page. Even liking a post or sharing a reel with friends to help spread the word is really important to all artist. We live in a world where artist have only a few seconds to catch someones attention so any support is welcomed. Yes of course we can create and find fulfillment in that but knowing that there are people out there that not only support you but want to share in that experience together makes all the difference.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jandthebishops.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jandthebishops/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jandthebishops/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jandthebishops
- Spotify: J + the Bishops https://open.spotify.com/artist/3X03z6e5Be1XeWxSMwCfFI?si=-sJfrNc2T32w5PWfOHthOg
Image Credits
Cate Jones, Britany Phillips and Daniel Muldiar.